New to the former is Steven Boones Lullaby Renditions of the Flaming Lips. It is just that: instrumental covers of the Lips catalogue, but played largely on a calming, tinkling vibraphone, and slowed to a soothing pace thatll relax even those of us who have mastered the art of not peeing our pants.
As someone who, over the period of the summer of 2006, pacified my feisty, finicky 1-year-old by bouncing him on my knee while The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song played on my iTunes, Im the last person to be shocked that the dream pop of Wayne Coyne and company have been turned into cribside soundtracks. Their songs and babies go together like Coyne and his giant bubble.
This is obvious from moment one. Whereas Race for the Prize opened the Lips landmark The Soft Bulletin with a crashing sprint, it opens here at an ever-so-soft step, yet retaining all its melodic splendor, albeit rendered in the style of a music box. And so it goes with 11 other tracks, including Fight Test, She Dont Use Jelly, Waitin for a Superman and our states official rock song, Do You Realize??
Its doubtful the Lips intended for their creations to be supplemented with the occasional hoot of an owl, chirp of birds, or ribbit of a frog (somewhere, Martin Denny smiles), but something tells us theyre totally cool with it.
Like all of the Rockabye Baby! releases, adults are prone to enjoy only those covering artists they already like. Repeat value is questionable, unless you have an infant. If you dont, I cant recommend whipping one up just to enjoy this disc.
While cradling that tot to sleep, use your free hand to peruse the CDs booklet, which re-imagines Coyne and his megaphone as a teddy bear, plus includes cutouts of the teddy-ized ringleader with his gigantic fake hands and his coterie of fur-suited minions. Rod Lott